"The central doctrine of Christianity, then, is not that God is a bastard. It is, in the words of the late Dominican theologian Herbert McCabe, that if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you."--Terry Eagleton

"It is impossible for me to say in my book one word about all that music has meant in my life. How then can I hope to be understood?--Ludwig Wittgenstein

“The opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice."--Bryan Stevenson

Saturday, April 28, 2018

May You Live In Interesting Times

North Korea is now a nuclear power, which means they can talk to South Korea about removing all nuclear weapons from the peninsula (never negotiate from a position of weakness), and they can even discuss peace.

The leader of North Korea has spoken to leaders in Russia and China, and has Trump agreeing to meet with him, giving North Korea the credibility among nations it has sought for decades (and been denied by wiser Presidents of the United States).

The leader of North Korea scored a major diplomatic coup, crossing the DMZ to meet face to face with the leader of South Korea, where they discussed everything North Korea wanted to discuss, but reached no agreements North Korea didn't want to reach. North Korea now looks reasonable and rational, and anything Trump doesn't give them makes Trump look the fool. North Korea will be in the superior position if there is a summit with Trump.

And Donald Trump did all that:

Yeah; sure he did. Well, the part he did is not the part he'll be bragging about. Mostly, he's bragging about what he doesn't understand.

Appearing with Kingston, columnist Brent Bodowsky also downplayed the Nobel talk, calling it the result of “atmospherics” around the announcement while also saying Trump’s claim that North Korean strongman Kim Jong-un is “honorable and very open” was “ludicrous and inaccurate.”

“The CIA equivalent in North Korea was telling Kim Jong-un, ‘I think we have a sucker here. He wants a deal too much and he is praising you,'” Budowsky added.